


Will you stand and be brave or be broken?

by LeeJeann



Category: RWBY
Genre: also this is sad so like if you aren't in a mood for sad also probably don't read this, because of course rwby is what gets me to write again, if you haven't watched that probably don't read this, spoilers for the volume 7 finale, that wasn't a school-related paper, this is the first thing i've properly tried to write in like 3 years
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-10
Updated: 2020-04-27
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:40:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22647295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeeJeann/pseuds/LeeJeann
Summary: Everyone is on the airship watching Salem's storm roll in and wondering how they can possibly save this kingdom when an update to the wanted bulletin gives them the punch to the gut that none of them expected.Edit -Me: *writes this angsty fic*Volume 8: "Need a lift?"Tbh I'm not surprised. Oscar still has a scroll, he probably either contacted the group or Pietro like, gps'd him
Comments: 27
Kudos: 137





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought maybe little one-shots would be a nice way to get myself back into writing like I used to and I'm a sucker for sad/angsty stuff, so here we are.
> 
> This takes place pretty much immediately where volume 7 left off (so kinda spoilers if you haven't seen the finale).
> 
> (No, I couldn't come up with a more original title than just using a lyric from the credits song and yes, I feel a little shame for that. It's a damn good song, what can I say)

There was a growing silence inside the airship with the sight outside the window. An enormous grimm like they'd never seen, an inside and outside threat to an entire kingdom, Salem _herself_ , and no idea how to stop any of it yet. The readings that pilot mentioned were absolutely right.

The silence was only broken by muffled buzzing moving across the airship, scroll after scroll lighting up with an update. It almost went unnoticed. Everyone was stuck in awe, or terror, of the nightmarish thunderclouds that could only be described as a manifestation of darkness itself. Even if they'd heard it, no one thought to move and check it in that moment.

The second thing to break the silence was the small gasp from Maria and a whispered "Oh no…" from Pietro when the update loaded on the screen in from of him. He spoke quiet, and solemn, and just enough to break the others from their fixation to the information on their scrolls.

_!Wanted: Update!_

Qrow Branwen: _Detained_

Oscar Pine: _Deceased_

_!All others remain at large. Detain on sight!_

The already-heavy silence became palpable. Somehow it was louder than the thunder outside. Qrow was somewhere under arrest. And-

Deceased.

The word didn't even need to be spoken to fill the air like a fog. Nobody could speak it if they wanted to and nobody wanted to. The text on everyone's screens was enough to blanket the airship. 

_Deceased._

"He…No." Jaune spoke first. "What did he-" he said with a glance between a watery-eyed Nora and Ren, who's head was back in his hands.

"He can't be," Yang whispered, finally looking up from her scroll in disbelief. She looked to Blake, who met her eyes with the same shock. To Weiss, who looked like she was already at her breaking point after everything that had just happened. Then to Ruby, who had stood up and seemed to be looking through her scroll more than at it now.

"Osc-" Ruby cut herself off with her eyes tightly closing.

"No," Jaune repeated. "Why didn't we follow him? Why didn't he _let_ us?" His voice shook as it grew louder into a mixture of despair and anger. Everyone's eyes turned to him with the sudden outburst. Which emotion was stronger, no one could tell. "Why did he run off _alone?_ What was so big that we couldn't help him?! We could've hel-"

"Jaune," Nora softly cut him off with a hand on his shoulder. Jaune paused before slamming his fist into the floor and refusing to meet her eyes again. "We…" She trailed off immediately, choking on her words and not knowing how to console him any more than she could herself. She knew the anger he was feeling all too well.

Ren exhaled a shaky breath, now looking blankly at the other two. Across the airship Ruby slid down the wall to sit on the floor without ever opening her eyes, Penny following to kneel beside her with a hand on Ruby's shoulder. The silence from earlier was replaced shuddering breaths and the panicked radio transmissions that now felt so horrifyingly loud.

There was a thought gnawing at everyone from the back of their minds. A quick glance shared by a few of them confirmed that they _all_ felt it. There's no time to grieve. Salem is here. _Salem is HERE with an army_. There's no time to mourn for the dead or else _everyone_ will be. How dare they hesitate, even for a moment, when so many lives were at risk? There's no time for a breakdown. Everyone was exhausted; at their wits end. It would've been so easy to snap and fall into the newest pit of grief, but they _can't._ They're huntsman and huntresses, with the licenses and obligation to prove it.

_How could they ever hesitate anymore?_

But how could they not? They didn't even know where he'd gone; what had happened. They knew _nothing._ Did he find Neo? Cinder? An altercation with the guards he was too exhausted to get out of? Had he gone after Ironwood? Was he running to a fight he knew he couldn't win? Could they have helped him if they knew?

Maria continued to fly the airship away from Atlas but avoiding the growing darkness on the horizon as everyone fell back into a similar but heavier silence. She and Pietro exchanged a concerned glance but allowed the kids a moment to grieve. _Everyone_ had to give the unspoken, unanswerable questions room to breathe before they suffocated everyone on the ship.

"Wha-… What do we do?" Penny asked in a quiet voice to no one in particular, hoping _anyone_ might have an answer.

"I'm not sure," Yang replied, wiping her eyes while watching Ruby worryingly.

"We do what we can," Ren finally spoke. He didn't raise his head, but he spoke with certainty. "We have to, don't we?" He looked to Nora, then up to the others as if he expected an answer even though one wasn't needed.

Ruby let out an exhale that definitely sounded like she'd been holding her breath as long as she could. She finally opened her eyes and looked around to the reddened faces that had turned to the sound of her sigh, ending at Penny who was still kneeling beside her.

"We have to," she said softly, almost to herself more than the others, then louder with a fierceness. "We _have_ to."

Through teary eyes shown a look of determination that worked its way across the group. Everyone could feel the pain in each other's expression and knew it wouldn't go away any time soon.

Jaune took a deep breath. "Okay. How can we save Atlas next? We need to do what we can for Atlas."

"For Remnant," Weiss added confidently.

Ruby stood up, taking Penny's hand to help her to her feet. "For everyone," she added with finality and wiped her own eyes. "For Oscar."

"For Oscar," the other's repeated with a determination that cut through the heaviness of the situation. Some spoke softly like a reminder for themselves. Others spoke loudly, like they hoped he might hear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey look, you made it to the end of my first thing on ao3! Thanks friend, please feel free to comment and whatnot but also just have a lovely day.
> 
> Will I write/post literally anything else in the near future? Who knows, probably not. But we'll see.
> 
> Also if you notice a typo or something please feel free to tell me. I've read through this a few times but I'm also quite tired and likely missed something.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oscar is dead. That's what the bulletin told them, but they aren't allowed the time to grieve. They need to get to Mantle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So a couple people commented saying they'd totally read a part 2. I started writing one a while back then gave up on it, the found it earlier and had the urge to finish it.
> 
> Edit: I made this playlist -  
> https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1YyEVGPpVfSBdPqgErVcIM?si=kvv2A8mvT5m_XRDqpN_xmA  
> to listen to while I wrote this chapter, if anyone is interested in that.
> 
> Edit v2: Hi, hello, it's been months and I've been watching rwby reactions, so I literally JUST noticed Jaune's scroll in volume 1 shows his teammate's aura levels and that wasn't new in Atlas, but lets pretend it is for the sake of my vaguely-angst detail at the start

A common habit among Beacon students , or any huntsmen-in-training really, is checking their scroll for their aura level. Regardless if the context was a friendly sparring match, a tournament, or fighting grimm, the principal was the same. If combat school hadn't solidified how important it was to know where your aura stood during a fight, Glynda's consistent emphasis on the necessity of checking would often result in it becoming second nature by the end of the first year. If spectators look close enough, they'd notice the many quick glances to scrolls throughout matches.

As they went through their years at Beacon, checking the scroll would become less of a necessity. The limits learned through sparring and missions are on par with the importance of the tactics being taught. Through practice came knowledge of just how much one's aura could handle before they needed to go on the defensive to recharge. How big of hits could they take? How many? How much did their semblance drain their aura? How many times could they afford to use it? Could they afford to activate it at all, less risk downing themselves? Students in their final year only checked on aura in dire situations, or purely out of absent-minded habit that would tend to follow them into the field.

That muscle memory was even more hardwired into Jaune than the average student. He knew he was far behind the team he was now meant to lead, so when he decided he needed to step it up he made extra effort to stay on top of things like his aura. After the fall of Beacon, the habit remained stuck with him. In their travels through Anima, he, too let the habit fade to nothing more than muscle memory. He began to understand his limits well enough. That understanding was only solidified by unlocking his semblance. Habits are hard to break.

After the "warmest" welcome to the coldest continent and receiving upgrades, courtesy of the Atlas military, Jaune's habit of glancing to his scroll became a conscious one again. It wasn't that he suddenly didn't know his own aura anymore. They had new scrolls that could connect to allies' aura. He could see everyone _else's_ levels. He didn't have to have his friends in sight to know if they needed backup.

Behind the excitement of Atlas, and the upgrades, and watching a real huntsman team in action, and even becoming a real huntsman himself, nestled away a little bit deeper, that knowledge felt like comfort.

\--

In the moments between the updated bulletin buzzing across everyone's scrolls and everyone realize exactly _what_ the update meant, the oxygen in the airship could have disappeared and no one would have realized as they held their breath. Everyone had the same silent plea _someone,_ ** _anyone_** _, tell me I'm reading this wrong._ But the stillness that blanketed the suddenly tiny space in the airship was almost suffocating as it confirmed to everyone that they _all_ read it correctly.

Detained.

_Deceased._

Jaune closed the bulletin alert before he even realized he moved and suddenly he was swiping through aura levels. Picture after picture passed until Oscar's came to view. 0%. He watched it for what felt like hours, but what truly less than a minute. 0% didn't mean dead _,_ it just meant _hurt._ Oscar was still the least experienced with his aura, but if he could avoid being hit for even a minute the percentage should increase to 1%.

Oscar must be in range. Qrow is likely _in_ Atlas and not far from Oscar. Qrow's aura is visible in the list and it's…. low. _Very_ low and Jaune can't even begin to wonder what must have happened. Still Jaune watched Qrow's percentage increase already. Oscar's should too.

He watched. It stayed. It stayed and _it stayed and-_

"He- no…" Jaune finally mumbled without taking his eyes off the meter. "What did he-" He trailed off, breathless, and finally raised his head to his team. He made eye contact with Nora and notice Ren's head was in his hands.

Shock became anger. How could Oscar have just run off? Why wouldn't he have told them where he was going?

Why do people run into battles alone when they _didn't have to?_

Everyone's grieving is cut off faster than anyone deserves by the bigger fight at hand. Despair was turned into determination, or at least everyone silently agreed to masquerade it as such. There was no time for anything except determination.

Salem is _here._ Everyone is terrified and not a single person is willing to try and say otherwise. There's no point. A skeleton of a plan is created, which is the best anyone can manage, and they're off. The airship needs to be away from Atlas so they won't get spotted or detained but there's nowhere safe to land it near Mantle. Maria and Pietro will keep the ship away from the grimm and safe while everyone else jumps just outside of Mantle's wall. They notice the main hole in the wall somehow _still_ has guards near it, though they're making little progress at stopping the grimm. They fly clear away from. With grimm charging the city, there's no reason the guards should choose trying to detain them over fighting grimm, but this is Atlas and orders are orders. The risk isn't worth it when surely there were other ways into the city.

Maria flies the ship the lowest she can with the lowest risk, somewhere underneath Atlas just beyond the mining pit. They'd have a lot of ground to make up getting back to Mantle, but they couldn't risk the ship being noticed as hostile. There weren't as many grimm there either. Since Penny isn't on the wanted list, she volunteers to fly ahead to look for a clear way into Mantle.

The hatches open on both sides of the ship. Everyone steps up to the opening. They share a look between one another. A nod. A silent, but understood plea: _please make it out alive._ Penny flies from the ship while everyone else jumps. The frigid air is unforgiving as they fall through it and everyone starts to either slow their fall or prepare for impact. One by one they hit the ground and become eternally grateful that Pietro fixed their comms with how spread out they landed.

Static clicks through everyone's earpieces before Ruby's voice mixes into it.

_"We need to get into Mantle, defend the city as best we can, figure out what we can do."_ She turns toward the group and gestures toward the mines. _"We can stay just inside the pit to avoid being spotted by any military."_

A murmur of _"copy"_ and _"got it"_ come across the comms. Ruby burst into her semblance and sped off toward the crumbling concrete at the edge of the pit, staying in sight of the others, and everyone else followed toward her. _"Most of the grimm are heading to the city but I'd bet there are still some around in the pit. Stay on guard,"_ Yang added, glancing between the others.

_"I don't see any nearby,"_ Ruby said. She quickly scanned the mining pit. Penny's voice comes in on the earpiece and Ruby sees her hovering over the mines in the distance.

_"I do not see any grimm near where you landed,"_ Penny confirmed. _" Yang is right, most are heading into the city. It seems there are several weak points on this side of the wall that they have broken through."_ Her voice softened into the end of her sentence with a subtle tinge of guilt.

"How shocking," Nora muttered.

_"Any openings you think we can get through, Penny?"_ Ruby asked, squinting to see the wall on the other side of the mining pit. She could just barely see what Penny was talking about. From where she stood she could see a gap or two in the wall and what looked like a large gateway that was likely used for mining transportation, now broken open.

_"Much of this side has grimm nearby, but I do not see any immediately at the wall. This side would be the quickest way in. You will have to be very careful of grimm coming from the mines, though."_ Penny flew further away from the mines to see the side of the wall where it met tundra. _"I do not see any openings on this side, but I will look further down."_

"Where are we heading, Ruby?" Blake called as everyone caught up to Ruby. Ruby looked from one person to the next as everyone caught up.

"If this side of the wall is open, I say we head there," Weiss chimed in. She looked around the group. "We can take a few grimm if there are any nearby and trying to head further around will only take up more time."

"That we do **not** have," Nora added. Ruby glanced behind her at the wall, then back to the group and nodded.

Ruby touched her earpiece so Penny would hear. _"Okay, let's head for the openings on this side."_ She started in the direction of the wall, everyone quick to follow suit. _"Penny is still in the air. She can warn us if more grimm show up before we get there and if there are too many to get past she can help us find an alternative way. Sound good, Penny?"_

_"Affirmative!"_

"…And what do we do next?" Jaune asked, finally speaking the question everyone had been thinking and already knowing the answer. The uncertainty was the only thing louder than the grimm and the darkness approaching Atlas.

"I… I don't know yet," Ruby said, the confidence she'd had only a moment ago faltering just slightly.

"We need to get into the city," Ren spoke up. "We can…" He hesitated. "We'll figure out the rest as we go." Everyone was exhausted and unsure, but no one had the time to be anything less than focused.

As they got closer to the wall they could see a few grimm just within the wall. Penny hadn't managed to find any other openings and instead flew over the city to go after the grimm already inside, while still keeping an eye on the wall everyone was approaching.

Making it to the wall was the easy part. Getting inside was a little harder, if only for the group of Sabyrs that had just run through the broken gate. Several of them noticed the group immediately and charged at them. A Teryx near the wall noticed as well. Whatever. Better charging at them outside the wall than at the civilians inside. Everyone drew their weapons and braced themselves.

"We've got the Sabyrs," Jaune opened his shield, "if you can take the Teryx." Team RWBY nodded to one another and the fight was on. Luckily there weren't any other grimm close enough to the wall to have noticed.

_"Do you need help?"_ Penny called over the comms.

_"No, ke-"_ Ruby cut herself off to dodge a fireball. _"Keep protecting as many people in Mantle as you can. We can-"_ A dodge and a gunshot. _"-handle this!"_

With RWBY tackling the Teryx and JNR after the Sabyrs, the two teams ended up separated by a fair distance trying to keep their targets from the other group. They were close enough they could still see the other, but fair enough that they'd have to use comms if they needed to talk.

Jaune dodged a Sabyr charging at him and used the pulse on his shield to knock it toward Nora, who readied her hammer before launching herself toward it and taking it out with a charged hit. Two Sabyrs aimed for Ren and shots rang out from his weapon, mixing with the distant blasts from the Teryx's fireballs. Jaune ran closer to Ren while Nora sent two rockets soaring toward the closest Sabyr.

It was knocked down, allowing Jaune to take it out and Ren to shift focus to the other. Jaune kept running toward Ren and heard Nora's rockets hitting another Sabyr that came out of the wall. Ren launched the blades of his weapon into the Sabyr, finally killing it as Jaune neared him. Jaune started to turn toward Nora but was stopped.

_"--OOK OUT!"_ Blake's rushed, frantic words crackled through the static of the earpiece, but could also be heard as a shout. At the same time, Jaune heard a panicked shout from Nora behind him, and seconds later there was the explosion of a stray fireball in front of him. Within those seconds, Jaune managed to duck behind his shield instinctively. He was knocked down by the blast and debris thudded against his shield. It left him dazed for a moment and he only partially registered the sound of Nora's running footsteps getting closer and her yelling for Ren. Jaune sat himself up and saw Nora kneeling by Ren, who had been knocked to the ground. They were immediately thankful Ren had taken out the last of the Sabyrs.

_"Is Ren oka-"_ another explosion further away cut Weiss off

The fireball had landed so close to Ren it had launched him backward and threw his weapon from his hands. Jaune and Nora had the same feeling of relief when the saw Ren moving. The blast didn't knock him out at least, but he was still hit hard and dazed from it.

Jaune shook himself out of the dazed feeling and pushed himself to his feet, only then noticing he'd pulled his scroll out as a reflex to see Ren's aura. 48%. He taken a _really_ hard hit, but he'd be okay. Nora had got him to his feet and looked to Jaune with a sigh of relief. A screech from the Teryx pulled Jaune the rest of the way from the haziness. He noticed a whirl of rose petals rushing toward them with the rest of Team RWBY trailing behind.

Jaune exhaled loudly, apparently having been holding his breath, and started toward the others. His scroll caught his eye again when Ren's aura ticked up to 49%. He noticed Qrow's aura had only changed 2% since earlier and the picture was greyed out now _. Out of range of Atlas, good to know._

50% now and Jaune hoped dearly that the grimm would stay away. He was almost to the others when something caught his eye at the edge of the screen. Oscar. He wasn't greyed out like Qrow. He was "in range," according to monitor. It took him another glance to finally catch it.

4%.

The tiniest sliver filled the bottom of Oscar's aura meter. It was _increasing._ "Uh.. g-guys?" He spoke hesitantly at first, almost certain he was still dazed. It was his mind, his eyes, his hope playing tricks. Like if he said it aloud, it would disappear again.

It didn't.

"Guys!" He was running now but kept his eyes on the meter. 5%. The others started walking toward him with worried expressions.

"Jaune! Are you hur-"

"Check your scroll! The aura meters-- look at the- Oscar's aura!" He held his scroll toward Ruby, who was the closest to him. Her eyes went wide and the others pulled out their own scrolls.

"5%? He has aura agai- but the announcem-" Ruby cut herself off.

"Please tell me my scroll isn't broken. Yours says it too, please tell me it-," Jaune babbled toward Blake. She was looking at her scroll with the same shock.

"Yeah… Yeah it does. How?!"

"Mine says it too," Weiss said. The group looked between one another nodding that they all saw it.

"It's at 6 now! We're out of range of Atlas, right? Qrow must be there and he's out of range." Jaune sounded almost frantic but he didn't care.

"Are you saying he's…" Yang started.

"Nearby? If he's in range, but Atlas isn't. How would he hav- You guys were in the academy when he ran off!" Ruby now had her own scroll in hand. "Wait, do you think he could be on the comms?"

"I don't know, maybe." Yang pursed her lip. "But wouldn't we have heard him? Unless his is damaged."

Penny landed near the group, though no one had noticed her flying toward them. "What happened?" she questioned with concern. "I heard shouting and saw Ren and Jaune on the ground so I came back as soon as I could. Are you okay?" She looked between the two of them.

"Penny, Oscar's aura is regenerating," Jaune blurted out instead of answering. 8% now. "We don't know how or where he is, but he has to be somewhere nearby right?!"

Penny paused a moment to realize what Jaune had said. "He's… alive?" she said, hopeful.

"I… don't know. But his aura has been increas- it's at 9% now! He has to be!"

"Atlas Academy is out of range to most of Mantle," Penny stated. "Much of Atlas is actually, except the stronger military signals. How would…. How did he get to Mantle?"

A Teryx screeched over Mantle and jolted everyone out of their shock.

"I hate to say it, but really we need to move. If Oscar is nearby we can try to find him but we _need_ to protect Mantle _now_." Ren spoke with a mix of urgency, and hope, and more reluctance than he'd care to admit.

Everyone hesitated, but agreed.

Jaune shut his eyes tightly. "Ren's right." He opened his eyes, keeping his gaze down at his scroll. "We need to protect Mantle. He's alive, we at least know that much, I think. We can…" he paused and gently put his scroll away. "We can search for him later."

A bittersweet feeling lingered for only a moment before the group turned all their focus on getting into Mantle. No other grimm had shown up at the wall in the few minutes they were standing there. They made their way through one of the gaps in the wall. Penny flew back over the city to search for civilians needing help and the rest started the journey through the streets of Mantle. The literal darkness looming over the city and how to save Mantle from it was at the forefront of every thought, only rivaled by everyone silently keeping an eye out for _any_ sign of Oscar. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fun fact: chapter one was called "some angst" in OneNote, this chapter is just titled "some angst v2"
> 
> fun fact 2: the entire first part about Beacon I fully wrote hearing Ozpin's voice speaking it in my head so like I lowkey tried to write in a very Ozpin-tone of voice. Idk if that comes across at ALL, but I did it.
> 
> I said I'm just "throwing this to the wind" but like if you notice a major typo or something and want to point it out, feel free.


End file.
